Pardew is a winner by anybody's reckoning for his work at Newcastle

By Martin Samuel - Sport for the Daily Mail
Updated: 03:15 EDT, 16 November 2011

Saturday is said to be the day of reckoning for Newcastle United under Alan Pardew. They are away to Manchester City. This will be followed by another trip to play Manchester United and a match at home to Chelsea. Then we shall see how good they are, say the wise ones.

So, shall we clear that one up right now? They’re definitely not as good as Manchester City and Manchester United and probably not as good as Chelsea. And who the hell expected them to be?

All smiles: Alan Pardew has masterminded a spectacular start for Newcastle

The fact that Newcastle may not be a match for the three strongest teams in the country is no surprise. If they get a single point from those games it will add up to more than  anybody expected at the start of  the season.

Losing to Manchester City would not make pretenders of Newcastle. City put six past Manchester United at Old Trafford last month.

What Newcastle have achieved so far, unbeaten midway through November, is simply outstanding. Many had them as candidates for  relegation and Pardew out of a job by now. Their measure is not the Premier League elite, therefore, but the  wannabes and middle-rankers.

Newcastle only need to be the fourth best team in the country for Pardew to have surpassed the achievement of any manager in a single Premier League season.
Even that feat, being better than the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Liverpool, is a tall order.

So forget the idea that Newcastle have fallen apart if they are still on 25 points on December 3. Under normal circumstances, nobody would have expected wins in Manchester and a point at home to Chelsea would have been hailed a success.

It is Pardew’s overachievement that has lent added focus on these fixtures.

Earlier this season, there was a case to make for Stoke, who had reached the FA Cup final, spent big, relatively, in the summer and thrived in Europe. Now a similarly optimistic case can be made for Newcastle.

They do not have the distractions of the Europa League, which would appear to have exhausted Stoke’s league form, and have already passed several stern tests against middling teams and Champions League  contenders, including Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

Now, if placing the mortgage on  a football bet this season, do not  support Newcastle finishing fourth. But, like Stoke several months ago, should they aim for fourth?  Absolutely. Why not?

New theatre of dreams: St James' Park, or the Sports Direct Arena, is buzzing with excitement after the unbeaten start to the campaign

You would not run out of fingers counting the unbeaten teams in Europe this season and Newcastle are among them.

Pessimism disguised as realism is the modern way. Yet why does  anyone even watch the Premier League if not only do shocks rarely occur, it is also presumed they can never occur?

Pardew has built intelligently from the back, creating a tight, well- organised group that work hard and have an outstanding team ethic.

Yes, we understand the challenges ahead. Manchester City have an oil field at their disposal and are not afraid to use it. And, arguably, no Newcastle player would get into City’s team.

Yet the fact a City victory will reveal something of Newcastle shows how far the club have come. Before the season began, we thought we knew everything. Newcastle were going nowhere, except maybe down.

Now, if they turn out to be not quite a match for Manchester City,  Manchester United and Chelsea, that information is newsworthy.

Pardew won’t like it and he won’t get any points for it but, strangely, that’s progress.

The new Messiah: Kevin Keegan knows all too about the warmth of fans

Sin-bin idea considered

The Football Regulatory Authority will reconsider the introduction of sin-bins at a meeting next month. It is the right idea and long overdue. Temporary banishment would be the correct way of enforcing the Football Association’s Respect campaign.

The practice already exists, unofficially, in youth football, where a coach will be advised to take a player off for a time-out and a talk if his behaviour is unacceptable. Indeed, rather than trial the sin-bin for violent or unsporting behaviour, it would be best if the sin-bin was first used to deal specifically  with dissent.

It could change the relationship between players and referees overnight. Having spent 10 minutes beside a furious manager on the bench, a player would quickly learn not to challenge the match official again, particularly if the opposition scored in that period, adding to the tension.

If sin-bins successfully tackle dissent then the concept  could be expanded to deal  with foul play.

This system works in other sports, including both rugby codes and hockey, where sin-bin punishments have been so successful that there are few repeat offenders and the equivalent of a red card is rare enough to merit a lengthy ban.

Spain play beautiful football, but can't stand losing

Obviously, having beaten world champions Spain, the newspapers were full of swaggering boasts about England’s intentions at the 2012 European Championship finals.

‘It’s a start,’ roared one headline. ‘Jagielka: it doesn’t mean we’re going to win the Euros,’ was a player’s bullish contribution. ‘We’re not suddenly a great football nation,’ former Arsenal striker Ian Wright cockily told the world, while other representations of typical arrogance included: ‘Our young lionhearts still have a great deal to learn’ and Alan Hansen’s verdict: ‘Jones could become the new Ferdinand — but not just yet.’

Beautiful game: England beat Spain, not at their own game, but with substance

Meanwhile, on 5 Live, Alan Green threatened to put the phone down on anyone who didn’t tip England to win the tournament next summer. Sorry, put the phone down on anyone who did.

So the two reporters from France and Germany (nice guys, actually, this isn’t a dig at them) who sat in the Wembley press room mimicking the typical cocksure outbursts that tend to accompany a decent English win — ‘We are the champions, bring on the world’, etc — picked the wrong day to try  out satire.

The 2010 campaign in South Africa was a tipping point. The country gets it now; there is a difference between hope and expectation. These days we travel about as optimistically as a bull to its big date at Seville’s Plaza de Toros. And that is where we need to look for evidence of arrogance in football.

For in defeat, nobody scores higher on the bull detector than Spain. Naturally, it can be argued this is a country with much to shout about: a World Cup, a European Championship crown and possession of the best club side in the world. Spain play beautiful football and are rightly adored by all.

Win at Euro 2012 and their period of dominance in the international game will be unsurpassed. However, they have also lost to Italy, Portugal, Argentina and now England since July 2010, so perhaps a period of quiet introspection is needed. Apparently not.

Head boy: Frank Lampard scored the only goal of the game

‘For the same reason that there are albinos in Africa, snakes with two heads and Japanese two metres tall, England beat Spain at Wembley. It was an anomaly, a caprice of fate,’ wrote AS. ‘Spain deserved a different result: England did very little,’ opined Marca. ‘The selection was a victim of the ultra-defensive, mean tactics that Barcelona have suffered  so often,’ fumed Sport.

Of course, we almost forgot: lovely Barcelona, the team who never foul and cannot be tackled, the club who only lose to anti-football or tactics deserving of sneering contempt.

How they suffer for their art! Had England generously allowed Spain to pirouette their way around Wembley, scoring four goals, all the credit would have gone to the visitors; as they were instead set a problem they failed to solve, all the credit went to Spain anyway.

No matter. We don’t get too carried away in England any more. We leave that to others.

Dutch courage

Remember when it was said Andre Villas-Boas might have 15 years at Chelsea? Unless he gets a run of good results soon, with Guus Hiddink coming back on to the job market, he may have nearer  15 minutes.

AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT

As predicted, the accusation of racism against Luis Suarez is now a vastly complex case involving the nuances of South American dialects.

The word Suarez says Patrice Evra heard several times when Liverpool and Manchester United met was negrito, a mockingly mischievous or affectionate term, meaning little black man.

Clash: The race row between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra rumbles on

As alien as that may sound to British ears - and Suarez was a player in Holland before this, remember, so should know better - the phrase is regarded as acceptable, even endearing, by all races in some parts of the Spanish-speaking world and was used in knockabout dialogue between two Spanish Under 21 internationals, Dani Pacheco and Thiago Alcantara, as recently  as last week.

Suarez will also no doubt claim that in South America commentators employ the term frequently during live broadcasts. So what is to be done?

It is certainly necessary to remind Suarez of the significant cultural differences between South America and Britain, but should we extend that warning to all Spanish-speaking players on arrival? Is the next step an agreed list of banned words?

The policy of zero tolerance for racism in football is rightly unchallengeable: but as the mix of nationalities in the Premier League grows it may throw up as many questions as answers.

Gunnar get far

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is waiting for a Premier League job, having led Molde to the title in Norway.

Sir Alex Ferguson often said that his outstanding impact as a substitute was down to his reading of the game from the bench. Solskjaer studied the play intently and with great understanding and knew exactly where the weaknesses were when he entered the action.

If he has retained that insight as a coach and manager, he could be quite a catch.

Button it, Lewis

Against all expectations and predictions, Jenson Button will finish the season as McLaren’s top driver.

It is testament to his courage and self-belief in choosing to go  head to head with his leading British rival,  Lewis Hamilton.

Main man in the middle: Jenson Button will end the season as McLaren's No 1

Most thought Button would  be cowed by the experience; instead, he has emerged with his reputation significantly enhanced. It is a triumph for the boldness of spirit of a true competitor.

Robin reliant

Arsene Wenger remains insistent that a single player, Robin van Persie, cannot make all the difference at Arsenal. See below.

Number of Premier League and Champions League matches won by Arsenal since last November without Van Persie’s involvement: two (Arsenal 1 Udinese 0, Champions League qualifier, August 16; Arsenal 1 Stoke City 0, Premier League, February 23).

Money talks

The latest disinformation is that the successful bid for the 2017 World Athletics Championships cost £300,000. This is true if we do not include the promise to underwrite the £4.5million in prize money that clinched it.

A bit like knocking the £9.3billion off the bill for the Olympics and saying the whole thing was done for the cost of David Beckham’s return flight and two nights’ stay at a nice hotel in Singapore.

Make Tevez pay

An awful lot of time is being wasted on what would appear to be several very straightforward issues surrounding  Carlos Tevez.

A man who, without good reason, is not turning up for work does not deserve to be paid, so Manchester City should stop paying him.

This may focus his mind on returning to Manchester, at which point he can be fined for his unauthorised departure to Argentina and being unavailable for work.

Even Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, accepts Tevez is vulnerable to further action now.

Meanwhile, his registration will continue to be held by the club and unless fit and present he cannot implement any FIFA ruling regarding contract release, so will remain in limbo, his career a stagnant mess until he behaves in a reasonable manner.

Hard enough: Carlos Tevez continues to cause problems for Manchester City

The only loophole would be if Tevez were to claim he was suffering depression and was in no mental state to return from Argentina. Even then, City would have the right to demand a second opinion, or examination by their doctors, at which point Tevez would need greater proof of his anguished state than the old Blackadder trick of putting two pencils up his nostrils and saying ‘Wibble’.

Although that might be an improvement on several recent pronouncements.

Whelan dealing

Dave Whelan, chairman of Wigan Athletic, says that foreign owners do not understand English football. This fails to take into account that just about all of the biggest travesties, from the renaming of St James’ Park to the financial catastrophes at Leeds United, Bradford City, Tottenham Hotspur and numerous others, came about with Englishmen in charge. There are just good bosses and bad bosses: passport details are irrelevant.

United he falls

Tomasz Kuszczak has no  reason to be angry at Manchester United for the way his career has turned out. Sir Alex Ferguson gave him every chance to stake a claim in the first team, 61 matches since 2006.

He wasn’t good enough. Not to be a first-team regular, not even to command a place in the reserves. Instead, United were forced to buy two new goalkeepers to replace Edwin van der Sar, which was hardly the plan.

'Slave': Tomasz Kuszczak claimed quotes attributed to him were false

It is not  Ferguson’s job to protect Kuszczak’s international career with Poland. The trick was not to become the understudy’s understudy at Old Trafford.

RFU tab is not to blame

It does not count against the RFU that they picked up the tab at the start of that  infamous night out in Queenstown. This is common practice in sport; an act of hospitality towards the playing squad that would be recognised by the ECB, the Football Association and many others.

The onus was still on the team to behave  reasonably and once the party had moved on to the Altitude bar and elsewhere, with the RFU no longer in the chair, the responsibility was with the players alone.

There is a free bar at most weddings, too. That does not give  anyone the right to drunkenly proposition the bride at closing time. If the RFU’s largesse was treated as weakness it reflects on the guests, not the hosts.